1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of automated restaurant cooking methods and apparatus, and in particular to a conveyor-belt, computer controlled system for providing short order stir-fried meals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automatic food processing equipment which utilizes conveyor systems are well known. Typically, such mass production food-processing equipment is used for producing a single type of food item. See, for example, BORSUK, "Method and Apparatus for Continuously Cooking Loaf Meat", U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,564 (1978); LATHAM et al., "Omelet Preparing Machine and Process", U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,169 (1974); LEE, "Fortune Cookie Machine", U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,993 (2982); DIENER et al., "Automatic Food Cooking Machine", U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,130 (1985); KANAGI, "Apparatus for Automatically Cooking Products Made of Batter, Such as Pancakes", U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,451 (1986); SUGIMURA, "Process for Continuous Rice Cooking by Steaming and Apparatus Therefor", U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,342 (1986); and ZEITLIN, "Automatic Turnover Machines", U.S. Pat. No. 2,855,867 (1958).
Even in automated conveyor food-processing systems which utilize computer control, the computer controlled mechanism is utilized for process monitoring of the manufacture of a single type of foodstuff. See, for example BULLERCOLTHURST, "Multi-Conveyor Processing System", U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,886 (1986) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,857 (1987).
Prior art devices which are capable of delivering several different types of food do so only in connection with minimal processing of an otherwise completely prepared, instant-food item, such as by adding hot water to a dehydrated food package, as shown in HARASHIMA, "Food Vending Machine with Cooking Apparatus", U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,632 (1977); and RUBINO, "Vending Machine with Fast Cooking Means", U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,676 (1970).
Such apparatus and methods, which provide for mass production of food items allowing some control or variation of the foodstuff, is largely limited to adding mixtures of flavor enhancers to a single type of foodstuff such as shown by BUCKHOLZ et al., "Mixed Seasoning", U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,094 (1985) or allows for some type of a customized cooking operation of a standardized foodstuff without any ability to substantially change or arbitrarily compose the recipe such as shown in RULLMAN, "Apparatus for Processing Food", U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,583 (1972) or BARTFIELD, "Apparatus for Dispensing Individual Orders of a Hot Food Product and Components Usable Therewith", U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,683 (1984).
What each of these prior art devices fails to show, either alone or in combination, is a methodology which can be performed in an automated food processing or cooking system for the control of a multiplicity of arbitrarily chosen, individualized cooking operations, such as temperatures, cooking times, stirring, addition of ingredients and the like on a dish-by-dish basis according to arbitrary customer order selection or short order. Therefore, what is needed is a methodology and apparatus which can provide for automated fast food cooking of arbitrarily selected short orders.